Thursday, August 09, 2007

I had been told that cabbages are quite difficuly to grow and last year I failed. They do take a long time to grow and you need to be organised - to get some spring cabbage you need to be on the case now.

So in Janury I bought some Greyhound seeds, these are Summer cabbages and had these in the greenhouse for 2-3 months. When they were about 9 inches tall (some were quite leggy) I planted them out under fleece.

Cabbages can attract caterpillars and slugs so you do have to keep an eye on them. I left them under fleece for 2-3 months, not to keep them warm but just to keep the butterflies away. This was a tip from Lukerman and it seems to have done the trick and we had the first summer cabbage this weekend.

and all the weeds are growing!!!! Apart from that the place is full of veg, my courgettes, squashes and pumpkins are racing away. I have pulled up the remains of the Broad Beans, my late crop didn't do too well as half of it was eaten by the deer. In its place I have planted some late 'Nantes' carrots and some winter turnips.

The sweetcorn is doing very well - I can't stand the stuff so I hope the wife is hungry. My late crop of peas seem to be doing quite well as are the parsnips. The only crop I am worried about are my late potatoes - they seem to have taken a battering with all the bad weather so how many we get is hard to say. One mistake I did make was that I didn't plant the potatoes deep enough so I have had to earth them up.

.....they just keep on coming, the freezer is now full so we are now selling them or trading them for other veg. Last weekend we had a 'preserving weekend' we pickled shallots, made some Piccalilli and some Blackberry & Apple Jam.